You wake up, check your phone, purchase with your card, and, hours later, get ready to board a plane. For many, this is commonplace. What you might not know, however, is that a single company has services for all these moments.

In a dead-end street in São Bernardo do Campo, São Paulo, lies the headquarters of the multinational French company Thales. They work on three fronts: Defense and security, Aeronautics and Space, and Cybersecurity and digital identity.

Besides São Paulo, the group has offices in São José dos Campos, Rio de Janeiro, and Brasília. They also have three factories: São Bernardo (dedicated to activities in Defense and Aviation), Pinhais (manufacturing of bank cards, SIM cards, and electronic documents), and Barueri (smart cards and research center for cybersecurity and digital identity). Mutually, all three units value discretion.

Yearly, Thales invests around 4 billion euros (approximately R$25 billion) in research and development, primarily in AI and cloud technology. Sales last year totaled 20.6 billion euros (approximately R$129.4 billion). The goal is to increase investment in research and development to 5 billion euros by 2028.

Brazilian operation

The multinational has been in Brazil for over 50 years, having a strong partnership with the armed forces, primarily on radars, of which it operates 130, and in sensors. In Brazil, there are over 1,300 employees.

It is also responsible for supplying communications systems for Embraer, such as those in the military cargo plane KC-390. Additionally, it is involved in the eVTOL project, the company's so-called ‘flying car,’ with its first test flight scheduled for 2026.

“There is no other country in the world with more Thales airspace radars than Brazil. Here you have capacity and competitiveness. We are managing to deliver”, says Luciano Macaferri, vice-president of LATAM and general director of Thales in Brazil.

He reminds us that, recently, the company’s executive board had a strategy meeting and that, from 2018, the single year in which they couldn’t manage to deliver what they promised was 2020, during the pandemic.

Since 2016, the group has invested R$100 million in Brazil through Omnisys, a Brazilian company owned by Thales since 2005, which turned into a subsidiary of the French conglomerate in the country. Between 2025 and 2027, another R$30 million should be invested in Brazil.

One of its big upcoming projects is the expansion of their 2 thousand square meter factory and the makeover of another 1 thousand square meters in their São Bernardo unit.

Macaferri says that the expansions won’t stop there. “We want to make the most of this virtuous cycle. Brazil transports some 100 million people by plane each year. And its population is around 210 million. France has 60 million people and transports 120 million per year. Of course, they have good ground infrastructure with trains, roads, everything. But we can easily think of a market potential here that is over 4 times larger.”

Even with all this domestic market to explore, the company also has eyes abroad. Thales’ radar center in Brazil also serves other countries in the Americas, in Europe, and in the Middle East.

The trillion-dollar market of credit cards

The French multinational doesn’t operate only in security and aviation tracking. Its business also covers the production of credit cards, having manufactured over 30 million eco-friendly cards for the Brazilian market.

“Brazil, today, is among the top 3 countries in the world in the payment systems market. There are a lot of credit cards. In terms of connectivity, however, we are still greatly lacking”, explains Macaferri.

For the executive, the concept of a bank card has been changing over the years, and he foresees that the object will remain useful. “Up to some 10 years ago, the cart was basically a commodity to make a transaction. With the growth of financial techs, without physical banking branches, the only physical contact the client has is reaching out for the card. By that, it has stopped being a commodity, and has become an accessory”, says the general director.

In 2024, proximity transactions grew 48.3%, moving 1.5 trillion, while purchases made through apps and websites increased to 979.4 billion – a 17.9% growth compared to the previous year, according to Abecs (Brazilian Association of Credit Card Companies and Services). For this year, the entity projects an increase of up to 11% in total transaction volume, which can reach R$ 4,6 trillion. According to data provided by the company, it is responsible for the security of 80% of payments worldwide.

The company is also a partner in biometrics and identity for organs such as the São Paulo Police, Federal Police, and the Distrito Federal’s government.